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tv   Piers Morgan Tonight  CNN  January 17, 2013 6:00pm-7:00pm PST

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way she likes it. you'll love the nine-inch zipper and casual front pleat. cut generously to fit a mom's body. she'll want to wear them to everything from a soccer game to a night on the town. >> look, i think we're far too quick to judge each other's jean-based choices in this country. let's get back to the true meaning of denimocracy. wear your mom jeans. even your moisturizing jeans and wear them proudly. they're a perfect fit on the ridiculist. we'll be back in one hour from now. join us on the latest of what lance armstrong said, and what the people who know him had to say about the interview. "piers morgan tonight" starts right now. tonight, the hero finally takes a fall. lance armstrong comes clean to oprah. we're watching. you don't have to. i'll talk to a woman who called armstrong, quote, a ruthless and
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relentless liar. and a winner who said he was played by armstrong all along. >> remember this? >> the bottom line is this, i have been unfaithful to my wife. i developed a relationship with a -- with what started out as a dear, dear friend from argentina. >> my interview with mark sanford. >> also, guns in america. the issue is not going away. i'll talk to the connecticut senator who says this. >> the fact is that the nra does not represent gun owners anymore. this is not your father's nra. >> and the irepressible hoda cuteeb. >> we're giving alcohol on the show. >> this is "piers morgan tonight." >> good evening. we begin with the big breaking news tonight. if you love armstrong, this is the moment you spent years and
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millions of dollars trying to avoid. the minute you admit to the world, you cheated, you doped, and you cheated and you doped. it's a story for the seven-time tour de france winner that has been played out live in the spotlight as he tells his story to oprah winfrey. watching the interview is a sports columnist for usa today and also he wrote september's cover story, i still believe in lance armstrong. and page, a criminal defense and constitutional attorney. i'll also talk to a man who knows the toll of a different kind of cheating. former governor mark sanford is back and he's here. we begin with lance armstrong. i'm going to start with you. this breaks your heart. i remember when you wrote this. it was at a time when many people were turning on lance armstrong. i admired your loyalty, frankly,
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as someone who clearly wanted to believe in him, because he had said to you himself, repeatedly, i never doped. i'm told you exchanged e-mails with him in the last week. tell me about that. >> i wrote a column at the daily beast on monday, and i probably should have done it sooner, repudiating the cover story, which i sort of flawed it hook, line, and sinker. lance e-mailed me yesterday and said, look, i f'd up, i want to apologize. i'm really, really sorry for sending you down this road. >> i think it was heartfelt. i didn't respond. i don't think there's anything to respond to. i still wonder, is he playing me? i think he did the same with rick reilly of espn. is this part of -- >> we have breaking news. lance armstrong has just confessed for the first time in public to oprah winfrey, i took banned substances. it was epo, which is one of the banned substances. he's confess eed that from his n
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lips. it's a momentous moment. got more revelations. he's saying he doped, he used blood trance fusions. it sounds like a pretty broad, wide ranging confession of frankly all of the things that many journalists around the world, including many from my country of britain, and others, who were sued and sued extensively by armstrong, were vindicated because he lied the entire time to them, to you, to others. a pretty shameful moment, isn't it, for him? >> it's incredibly shameful, but you're hitting on the things he can't take back. he went through the lengths, not just the lying, but the litigiousness of suing the london times, winning a $500,000 judgment, when he knows all along, they're telling the truth. i just think it's a little late in the game. his behavior towards people, his litigiousinous, coercing teammates, describing a former
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employee as being a prostitute. i don't think any of that stuff can be taken back. i want to watch and see -- >> we're watching it all over the place. he's apparently now conceded he probably wouldn't have won the seven tour de frances without the doping that was going on. the cortisone and more details by the minute to oprah winfrey. it sounds like a full and frank proper confession. the reason he's doing it, many believe, is he wants to compete again on some level of international sports. i don't see any way he can do that, do you? >> i have heard they might consider reinstated him in eight years. he would be 49 years old. this would be to compete not in cycling but ironmen competitions and triathlon. i think he's desperate to compete. frankly, he's desperate about his reputation because he's worried about money. >> he has no reputation. this is a man who didn't just deny things. this is a man who was proactive in his denial and who as we just discussed, went after
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journalists, bullied them, sued them, won money, and i think it's worse than that, more cynical. i think the whole confrustruct his live strong charity, i now believe, was meant to protect him from exposure to doping. it earned him on the back of all the money he earned for charity, he made himself rich too on his saint lance image. i beat cancer because i'm a tough, heroic cancer. he's not. he may have beaten cancer. many people do, but they're not cheats and they don't make money out of that kind of reputation. that reputation tonight is gone. >> that reputation is gone, and i think what you're saying, as they think about it, it makes a lot of sense. although live strong did a lot of good, it was another layer of insulation, another way of cementing this image. i am a thing. i started a foundation, i beat cancer. would i actually be seating if i was suing the london times, if i
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was trying to pop publication booking in france, no. the more i say no and the stronger i say it, the more people are going to believe, come on, he's lance, and he passed 500 drug tests. and he didn't do it. just like i said in the story. >> given the scale of his betrayal to you personally, will you ever talk to him again? >> no, there's no point. i don't bear any malice. >> don't you? i i would. >> i don't. at the end of the day, i'm a seasoned journalist. i'm a investigative reporter. i should have known better. when he said he was dropping his fight against the uada, there was something that didn't make sense. you don't fight for ten years and then drop it. >> let me update you. they're coming to this now. lance armstrong has now confessed in his own words, from his own lips on national television, to oprah winfrey that he doped, that he cheated,
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and therefore that he lied to inentire world about the real reason he was able to be a champion cyclist. the confession is apparently ongoing, details, he took a number of banned substances and conceded he wouldn't have won any of the tour de frances if he hadn't taken them. it's cheating at the very highest and worst form, if you like. let's get out to rich french. you represented michael vick, who i have interviewed, and very powerful interview at the time. in lance armstrong's case, the scale of deception is so great, the scale of lying is so great, the scale of the treachery to so many people is so great, and after that, the bullying and nastiness and the suing, is there any way back for lance armstrong? >> well, piers, if he thought the climb up the pyrenees was difficult, he's going to find the climb to regain his reputation is even worse.
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in reality, we love to tear our heroes down. it happens, you know, quite frequently when somebody, you know, gets to a point where you look at the tiger woods situation or barry bonds or many other athletes. but the problem that lance has is very simple. in michael vick's case, if you use him as an example, mike had the ability to get back on the field and show he could still be an elite athlete, and he also became an advocate for -- >> rick, if i could interrupt you there, we have got breaking video now of lance armstrong confessing. >> yes or no, did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance? >> yeah. >> yes or no, was one of those banned substances epo? >> yeah. >> did you ever blood dope or use blood transfusions to enhance your cycling performance? >> yes.
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>> did you ever use any other banned substances like testosterone, cortisone, or human growth hormone? >> yes. >> yes or no, in all seven of your tour de france victories, did you ever take banned substances or blood dope? >> yes. >> in your opinion, was it humanly possible to win the tour de france without doping? seven times in a row? >> not in my opinion. >> so when did you first start doping? >> we're done with the yes and noes? >> we're done with the yes and noes. >> you know, i suppose earlier in my career, there was cortisone and then the epo generation began. >> began when? >> for me or for -- >> for you? >> mid-'90s.
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>> stunning confession tonight. now other way to describe that. that was one of the biggest mea culpa u-turns i have seen in the history of sport. you're talking about a man when he won seven tour de frances was one of the greatest champions in american sporting history now confessing he wouldn't have won any of them if he hadn't been a cheat and doped himself up with all sorts of illegal substances. pretty sensational revelations there. >> sensational revelations. as we all know, no one is really shocked by them. at least he was somewhat forthcoming. what i want to hear more about is his justification for lying. >> we have discussed the piece you wrote. many, many people, because i was attacking him on twitter most of the last year. >> right. >> and the response i was getting was droord. so many people didn't want to believe that lance armstrong was a cheat and were telling me, you
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are wrong. he will prove you wrong. he will sue you and it was threatening. it was widespread, not just in america. people will be shock ed because that's a series of confessions that destroy every denial he's ever made about any of it. >> i think the allegations when the case sort of became public, the 1,000 pages of documents that showed not just the blood doping, the coercion, the length at which he went, the system of avoiding detection. that's when it turned for me. judging from the e-mail i got to the comments in the daily beast saying i can't believe a word lance said, there were very few who said you're wrong. there are many who said -- >> let me watch this and i would imagine watching it with the same kind of shock everybody has been watching this. christine, what is your take on the scale of his confession tonight? >> wow, that was a wild minute of television, wasn't it?
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the yes, yes, yes. this man lied with ease, piers, for over a decade, and he came clean, if we want to call it coming clean, i guess it's coming clean, with that same kind of ease. ruthless. you almost wonder if he has a heart or a soul to be able to completely do a 180 so quickly on something that he has stood by forever. that was breathtaking. >> and a certain glibness at the end there, are we done with the yes and noes? trying to control things, trying to be the lance armstrong of old. i would say, you know, lance, we're not dawn with the yes and noes. there's much more to ask you because you have made a series of confeshzs in the last minute, as you say, of some spellbinding audacity. the fact that this man for a decade or more has just peddles absolute lies to everybody and done it in an aggressive,
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bullying manner. has anybody come close to lance armstrong? >> no, he did. he's number one. we with retire the gold medal for cheating. and i don't mean to be making fun of it or joking about it. it's very serious stuff. he is the worst fraud in the history of sports, phe just showed it. he just showed it. i mean, for someone to be able to turn so quickly in your life, hear about the glibness. are we done with the one-word answers. this isn't funny, yet he seems to think it's all sport, still a game. >> i think he still wants the control and thinks he can wriggle out of this. you're not going to be able to. this is too bad for that. let me turn to page, the criminal defense constitutional attorney. there must be a lot of legal ramifications here. his lawyers have allowed him to do this, but hearing the ramifications, knowing what i do about the lawsuits, surely, he's going to be facing a battery of
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lawsuits, isn't he? >> absolutely. i don't think this is a change of heart for lance armstrong. i also don't think it's about competition. i think the timing of this confession indicates there's a paubltd of a settlement with the justice department in the whistle blower lawsuit pending against him. that's just one of several lawsuits he's going to have to face and he may have to face that one very, very soon. >> could he go to jail for perjury, for any of these confessions? >> well, it's not quite that simple. had he made a false statement to one of the investigators during the course of the criminal investigation, then yes. but i don't think he personally made any statements to any investigator. however, if he attempted to influence a witness, obstruct justice in some way during the investigation, tell someone not to talk or try to change their testimony, then absolutely. but i think part of his confession now is a settlement with the justice department, not only of the pending whistle
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blower claim against him to try to get some of that money back to the postal service, but also to head off a possible resurrection of the criminal investigation. and this is the only way to do it. >> he's apparently just said he wasn't afraid of being caught. which in itself is utterly brazen. why would you go so far to bully, coerce, and threatten people and sue people if you weren't afraid of being caught? lance armstrong, tonight you got found out and got found out big time. thank you to all my guests. we'll be back with an update to all this in a live midnight address on lance armstrong. a pretty terrible day for sport around the world, and shocking is the only word you can use. lance armstrong, a full confession. i'll talk to somebody who has been through the mincer as someone exposed as a cheat. we'll listen to his take on lance armstrong and his comeback in political life. ♪ i don't wanna be right
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using substances like cortisone and hgh. he said he wouldn't have won without doping. he admits using banned substances in the tour de france. and most shockingly of all, he wasn't afraid of getting caught. he was the biggest cheat in public sport u and shame on him. former governor mark sanford caught himself in an affair and a bit of a political punch line. before you get too nervous, i'm not in any way linking what happened to you with the kind of grotesque confessions spilling out of lance armstrong's mouth. i have to ask you, as somebody who has been through, i guess the mincer of getting caught, doing something you shouldn't have been and all of the public abuse that comes your way and the downfall and so on, what do you feel for lance armstrong tonight on that level? >> i feel bad for him. you know, it's a remarkable
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storm he's about to go through. i suspect he'll go through the depths of a personal journey that maybe will bring him to a humbler spot and a spot where he recognizes the grace and giving of others and maybe appreciates it for the first time. >> what did you learn about yourself? because i have interviewed you before and it was a very moving interview. you were very honest and it seemed to me you were a changed man in many ways. what was the sort of overriding thing you learned about yourself that perhaps made you a better m man? >> well, what you have publicly displayed is you're not as good as you think you are and you're not as good as you act. yet what you learn in the wake of that saultimately our brokenness as human beings is our protection. if i act like i'm on one pedestal and you're on another, we're not relating. it's in our brokenness that we understand each other, have
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empathy for each other, and have a real conversation about how is it we move forward on this journey called life. >> you're having another go now at congress, and many people feel good about that. the reaction has been positive, and certainly when i interviewed you before, i thought you were genuinely contrite and it was a personal failing more than anything else that you admitted to, but a failing on the sense of the other side of it, you're still with the woman that was at the center of the scandal. you're very happy. you're engaged to be married. and this has now led you, i think, to a position where you believe you can run again for office. do you think the electorate, when they face the task of possibly re-electing you, will forgive you? do you expect widespread forgiveness? >> well, i mean, that's up to each individual to decide. what i do know is two things. one is there's an amazing reservoir of human grace out there. there's a reservoir of god's grace that each of us has to
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access ourselves as best we can. and what i have come to learn and this is perspective on all of these events, you know, a lot of people said, look, mark, i'm not going to judge you on your worst day any more than i judge you on your best day. what i'm going to do is take a look at the totality of where you came from in 20 years of politics and where you come from as a member of our community here for 52 years and i'm going to make judgments accordingly. that's all any of us can ask. forgiveness really is in the hands of the owner. it's incumbent upon each of us to make that decision for ourselves. >> you're fighting in an old stomping ground of yours. it's a seat vacated by tim scott, who was appointed to senate last year by governor nikki haley. it's going to be a bit of a tough battle. you have good competition down there. you have larry grooms, chip limehouse, and teddy turner's son, ted turner. it's not easy. why do you want to come back to congress? what do you see is missing that
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perhaps you can fill in terms of a gap? >> an old buddy of mine in buford summed it up well. tom davis and i went to college together. he's now a state senator from down that way. he called me and said, you know, mark, you've really got to do this. you were talking about debt and deficit and government spending 15, 20 years ago when nobody was that much focused on it in washington, but now they really are. here is a chance for you to take all you learned, what you learned on the way up, on the way down, in congress, in the governorship, and apply it to what is really the debate of our times. if you look, we're having a new fiscal crisis it seems every couple months. we had the debt ceiling, the fiscal crisis, and that's really the tip of the iceberg that is coming our way based on unbelievable demographics and unbelievably unsustainable government spending. what i want to do is take what i learned and hopefully apply it to again a great conundrum that
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now exists in washington, which is how do we get our financial house in order? >> i wish you all the very best. thank you for joining me again tonight. it's a pleasure to talk to you as it was last time. i genuinely wish you well. i'm glad you're making another go at this. good luck with it. >> i appreciate it, thanks. >> newtown changed everything, but the nra doesn't get it, and the gun advocate who says america doesn't have a gun problem. they just have a values problem. like a lot of things, trying to find a better job can be frustrating. so at university of phoenix we're working with a growing list of almost two thousand corporate partners - companies like microsoft, american red cross and adobe - to create options for you. not only that, we're using what we learn from these partners
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today, president obama is pushing forward with his sweeping gun flplans, vowing to make it a reality. the white house qknows it will e a tough fight. chris murphy, welcome to you, senator. i spoke to your colleague last night. there is sasense although many senators and congressmen and women are determined to try to help the president get his way, there are an eke wal large number of democratic senators
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and a lot of republicans in the congress who just simply won't wear because they're worried about the nra coming after them and driving them out of office. what do we do about that? >> well, listen, i think the nra is in a fundamentally different position than they were just 35 days ago. they don't have a grip on congress like they did. and you have seen it. you have seen democratic senators come out and say they're willing to look at assault weapons ban. you have seen republicans in the house of representatives from places like georgia saying they'll look at background checks and bans on high-capacity ammunition clips. no one should be afraid of the nra. if you look at their electoral record, it's pretty pathetic when niebt% of incumbents got re-elected, only 80% of the people they supported got re-elected. they're not the electoral force members of congress think they are, and they're fundamentally
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on the wrong side of the debate. the stuff they're putting out, like the commercial they released yesterday against president obama, is almost like a saturday night live parody of themselves and the if they're going to continue to conduct themselves this way, members of congress are going to separate from them. >> are you dispirited about the rumbles that the president can't push through an assault weapons ban. no one can tell them the power has no place on civilian streets or in civilian hands, and almost already, i'm seeing the white flags of surrender in washington. who is going to show some kind of political leadership? >> yeah, you know, i have talked to so many of these parents and families over the last few weeks. and one father, i said to him, i want your perspective on the coming debate on assault weapons. he sort of paused for a second and said, what debate? to families in newtown, it's simple. if you had an assault on assault
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weapons and high capacity magazines, there would be little girls and boys alive. i don't buy that you can't pass an assault weapons ban. if you put it on the floor of the united states senate, it's going to be hard for members of the senate to look the newtown families in the eye, who are going to be in washington, i guarantee you that, over the next several months, and tell them they stand with the nra instead of the kids. it's not going to be easy, but if the president sticks to the commitment he made, if he doesn't get distracted by something else or a crisis, we can get this done. >> it's so vital. lots of the other proposals he came out with are very important. the cancelling of these ridiculous loopholes in background checks at gun shows and so on, bleeding obvious things to do. investing in mental health and so on. but to me, the aaltweapons ban has to be the plank of this because it's these assault weapons that are being used for the massacres. it's not the issue involving handguns in chicago.
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it's about assault weapons and their relationship to deranged people and massacres. >> yeah, and listen, absolutely we have to view this who wholistically and approach the gun ban in cities. let's address what happened in newtown, connecticut. first, if this guy didn't have an assault wep nl, if he didn't feel invincible with the weapon he used in video games in his hands, he might have never walked into that school in the first place. let's say he did that and he didn't have the high capacity magazines frk what we know is in these shootings they often stop when the shooter is reloading. we think that may have happened in sandy hook. he only had to reload twice to get 100 rounds off. if he had to reload nine times, he wouldn't have killed as many kids. that's the reality, is that we need to do all those other things, but if you get the 100 round, 30-round clips off the streets, the next time somebody walked into one of these schools, there's going to be less carnage, and that's a tradeoff that every hunter in
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connecticut, i think, is going to be willing to make when they look at it. >> i completely agree. good for you, senator. keep up the fight. it will be down to people like you showing the political courage that many in washington have lacked over this to drive it through and make it happen. i wish you luck with it. >> thanks a lot, piers. >> my next guest doesn't think america has a gun problem at all. larry elder, and author of "dear father dear son." no gun problem in america? >> thank you for having me on. this book i have written is by far the most important book i have ever written because it's the centrality of fathers. the face of gun violence in this country as horrific as sandy hook was, is not newtown. it's chicago where 500 people last year were shot. they're a city with about a third black, a third white, a third hispanic, however 75% of the murders were committed by blacks, usually against other blacks. most of it gang related. the question is why do these boys join these gangs?
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the answer is they have no fathers in the house. 75% of black kids are born without fathers in the house. 50% of hispanic kids, 20% of white kids. >> let me jump in. i have read this claim of yours, and i have looked into it -- >> claim? >> it's a claim, and i'll tell you whiy it's a claim. i don't dispute the claim of crime in chicago, but i dispute the claim this is why it goes on. if you look at new york and los angeles, their gun homicide rates have dropped to levels in the 60s, and 25% of children were born out of wedlock compared to 75% now. how do you explain that using your argument? >> piers, this has been studied many times bike organizations like the heritage organization. >> how do you explain in new york where they have extremely strong gun control now, how do you explain that? how do you explain it's not happening in new york? >> there are lots of factors why
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people commit crimes. but if you look at even new york and you look at the crime in new york, i'm willing to bet you there's a direct relationship between those kids who came from homes with no dads and the fact they committed crimes. >> i'm sure -- >> may i finish? >> you may. >> one of the things i write about in my book "dear father dear son" is there's a direct correlation about not having a father in the house, dropping out of school, going on welfare, being unemployed. don't even quote people like heritage foundation. let's talk about people like tupac shakur. let me finish, he said if i had had a father in the house, i would have had more discipline and more confidence. you're ignoring what the real issue is here. >> let me jump in because here is my point. what you're trying to make me believe is there's not really a gun problem. there's a social problem involving the lack of fathers -- >> that's right. >> in homes. it doesn't explain why the gun murder rate has plummeted in los
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angeles, which has just as much gang crime, you know. >> it's all over the country. plummeted all over the country because we're putting bad people behind bars longer. >> why don't you accept that where a city like new york under successive mayors has not only introduced very tough gun control but has enforced it with excellent police law enforcement, they have had stunning results in reducing the gun murder rate and the gun suicide rate. why can't you just accept that that is a fact and say that actually in chicago, there may be many other issues, one of the issues in chicago is that states around chicago, as you know, like indiana, have very lax gun control. gangsters get in their car, load themselves up, and come back. also it may be that the police enforcement in chicago has been nowhere near as effective has it has been in los angeles in dealing with gangs, and has it has been in new york. these are things you should consider, aren't they? before you dismiss there being no gun problem?
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>> they most certainly are, and i would submit you the problem of children born without fathers is more acute in places like chicago, detroit, cleveland. and those who commit crimes come from house holds i mentioned. i interviewed the head of the naacp. i said, as the president of white racism or the absence of black fathers, which poses a bigger threat of the black community? he said without missing a beat, the absence of black fathers. >> larry -- let me make it clear, i think you raise a perfectly valid point, and i think it is certainly part of the problem in certain parts of america, but i think you also -- >> it's primarily the problem. you also need to focus on assault weapons and other issues which i think have an equally paramount importance. we'll talk about this again, i'm
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sure, in the near future. >> you got it. appreciate you having me. >> coming up, the "today" show's live wire, and a preview of my interview with charlie sheen where he says winning wasn't really winning at all. you have to watch this. like no atm fees, worldwide. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and no nuisance fees. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 wasn't really winning at all. you have to watch this. heck and manage your cash and investments tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with schwab's mobile app. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 no wonder schwab bank has grown to over 70 billion in assets. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so if you're looking for a bank that's in your corner, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 not just on the corner... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 call, click or visit to start banking with schwab bank today. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550
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i'm joined by mr. piers morgan. cathy lee has a few days off this week. nice to have you. >> i'm disappointed she is not here. i thought by now we would have this going. what is this? >> this is a mardi gras cake sent from new orleans. the whole deal is this seems early for mardi gras, but this is the official sort of kick off to the mardi gras season. >> hoda, you do not get a body like this eating cake. sitting in for kathy lee. i loved my time with hoda. and the reason was i think you and your cakes gave me the
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perfect preparation for interviewing people like mahmoud ahmadinejad. >> can i say how fun it was? you have a weird way, i have to point out, when we had a guest, it started off fun and somehow you found a way to curve in and go right for it. i remember taking note when i watched you do it. >> what i loved about you on there, it's interesting about the premise of your book, really smart, underpinning it is a love of news and journalism. that's really what you're about. >> i spent my whole career traveling the world and covering great stories and i loved it. i loved every minute of it. when i decided to switch gears and laugh and scratch and drink with kathy lee, it was a little unnevering because i was so used to doing what i was used to, but i realized you're doing the same thing, except it's lighter fare, and when breaking news happens, you're ready. you have been there, done that. i look, i straddle the line and
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sometimes you can't help but wonder, is this the right path? >> it's the right path. >> it's been so much fun. >> let's get to the news. two huge things this week, one, the gun control debate, which obviously i have been very passionate about. you said it shouldn't be about guns or uzis. i can't understand why there's a talk about a slippery slope. you take away an assault weapon, you won't have a weapon to protect yourself in your home. i don't get that. it's not about taking everybody's guns away. it's about a particular type of weapon which to date nobody has really given me a sensible reason why a civilian would ever need one. >> it's so funny because every time i hear the argument, i feel just what you said. i mean, here you are listening and thinking, why do we have these types of weapons? and look, i think you should be able to be armed. i lived in the south for many, many, many years. people like to have their guns. they want to protect themselves,
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and i get it, but i can't believe there can't be a discussi discussion. that's the thing that kills me. it's one thing to figure out what we decide later, but you can't have a conversation. >> you have covered war zones. you know the power of these weapons in military hands. they are really military-style weapons. when an a rr-15 can pump out 100 bullets in a minute, these are war machines. >> yeah, and once you have seen them in action, you have a really rude awakening. i worked in new orleans for many years and i covered lots of crime. we used to go and see murder after murder. i remember i got to a point where i couldn't take it anymore. at one point, there was a dead guy on the street, and before the coroner got there, there was crime tape around it, and this mom was standing there, and her kid came out. i was watching this whole scene unfold. she said, what are you doing out here, jerome 1234 and he looked att her, and i said, oh, good, and she said, without your coat
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on? it showed how desensitized these people had become to a murder in their neighborhood. they were more worried about their child catching the flu than seeing the death in front of them. >> you saw the debate. >> i did. >> when you hear the debate about armed security in school, what do you think? >> i don't like this, this is my personal opinion. i don't like more guns to back guns. that's me. i think there has to be another way around it. >> lance armstrong, big night for him, confessing to oprah, finally after years of lying and deceiving the americans and everyone in the world, he's finally saying i'm a cheat. what do you think of that? >> i'm very frustrated about the story. one thing that crystallized this, there was a commercial, a nike ad, and it showed lance armstrong with a crush of reporters and they were asking him things and taking blood from him, and the question was, what am i on, what am i on, i'm on my
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bike, what i you on? i thought, oh, my gosh. this is a man who has taken this issue and made it such a public thing. look, a whoopsy is a whoopsy, but 15 years of lying is a different thing. it's a toteomy and completely different thing. i'll be -- i'm frustrated with the whole situation. >> i think it's a total disgrace. >> you do? >> i think lance armstrong will go down in history as the biggest sporting cheater. i mean that in a negative way. i think he is somebody who inspired a whole generation and inspired it on a pack of lies. more than that, rather than cheat and hope he got away with it, this is a guy who actively sued journalists and publications and newspapers and won vast sums of money. you're a survivor, five years, by the way, fantastic. and you look amazing. congratulations. >> i'm sorry, say that again. >> amazing. >> as a survivor, can you divorce what he has done as a
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survivor to help cancer and other charities and the money he has raised from everything we now know about him? >> i know how much money we need for cancer and research, you can say it's all bad money because it came fraught something bad. >> is there such a thing as bad money? >> i think there could be. there's a principle. it's about more than the money. you're saying something, making a statement. >> a sad day for sport and for cycling in particular. and for america, because he was a sporting icon. >> he sure was. >> never good when a sporting icon comes crashing down as a cheat. let's take a break, come back and have frivolous fun. >> i have been waiting for that. >> if you couldn't have a drink for the whole of january, you and kathy lee may be as near to death as you can get. into a scooter that talks to the cloud? ♪ or turn 30-million artifacts... ♪
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the art of dealmaking. you've mastered monkey-style kung fu? no. priceline is different now. you don't even have to bid. master hahn taught you all that? oh, and he says to say (translated from cantonese) "you still owe him five bucks." your accent needs a little work. as you know, i have a boyfriend now. >> hoda phone, that can't be
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true. tell me, do you find it hard to find time to see him? >> it can be. i'm busy with the today show. >> i mean because he's imaginary. >> no. okay, that was fake. >> so is your boyfriend. >>fake. >> so was your boyfriend. >> i mean it was an electronic device. >> so was your boyfriend. >> "snl" having fun with hoda and kathie lee. quite -- >> i did not invent that boyfriend, by the way. that was a true boyfriend at the time, piers. >> the imaginary partner scandal breaking before our very eyes. >> yeah, that's pretty incredible. exactly right here. >> that's depressing. >> you've given up alcohol for the month of january. i'm stunned for kathie. a woman for who a wine of glass is never more than a few inches
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away. >> it's depressing. >> is it as bad? >> we're giving up alcohol on the show. so there are 23 other hours in the day. anyway, it's a tough hour to get through. >> do you feel you've lost your -- >> yeah. >> you are the earliest drinkers. >> i had al roker on. do you think it would help if they had alcohol in the earlier part. calm everyone down a bit. >> nothing like lubing it up a little. i don't think it could hurt. >> what do you make of the whole war with "gma," the fall out from ann leaving. when i did the show with you that time, i realized how important ann was to the family of the "today" show. it looks like there's been a divorce and everyone is slightly hurting from it. >> i think with us, i mean you know from walking in the door it really does feel like a family. i think ann is doing what, look, no one is better at being in one of the remote locations doing a thing like ann curry.
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every time i see here out in the field i think, she tells it better than anybody. >> and a lovely person. >> she's a great person. >> one of the nicest people i've met in television. >> absolutely. when you walk in the door at the "today" show. i don't know what roker told you. he said at one point. he's always in a great mood. every single day you walk in here and he said you know why? because my dad drove a city bus and i get to come here every day. and everybody, matt especially. there's a gratefulness about being there. i don't know. i feel lucky walking in the door. and there are wars and everyone is looking at numbers. is it up or is it down? as far as i'm concerned, we're on this show that's been driving the bus for 17 years. we hit a pothole and let's get moving. come on. >> get moving. fantastic book. i tell the viewers why. it's called "ten years later." it's about six people who went through appalling adversity in their lives and then transformed them. you go back ten years on. the one that really i found
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poignant was a guy who helped people on 9/11 get out of the towers without realizing his own loved ones were in one of the planes that had crashed in. a more desperate kind of story you couldn't imagine. this guy helping and then having this despair. >> yeah. >> riveting read, as they all are. why did you come up with the idea? >> i thought it was a lot of people were in a funk. whether it's tragedies around the world or close to home. and i think when you are hitting a bad spot, you think how am i going to live ten minutes let alone ten years? how is it going to be possible? so we looked for people that had a big, difficult problem. we wanted to fast forward ten years to see what happened to them. just so that you felt like if they are going through this and may made it i can make it through what i'm going through. it's kind of a pick-me-up. i felt like everyone felt so low lately. and some of these stories, there's a woman in here named roxanne quinnby. she lost three waitressing jobs, had a couple of kids. everything was fall apart. she sees a lumberjacky guy on the side of the road with a big
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pickle jar of honey. it's honey. no one is buying it. she helps him package it. she takes the wax from his hives and makes candles. she says we have to get a name for this. there's a big sign that says burt's bees. she sold this company for $350 million. i mean, man, like wow. >> and they are all inspiring like that. >> they are all uplifting. >> some have made money. some haven't. tomorrow i interview charlie sheen. >> do you? >> he's just become a grandfather. i want your reaction to charlie sheen. talk about ten years later. becoming a grandfather. >> you know what? look, it's one of those things you wonder who is going to be wearing the bib at the end, the grandchild or charlie sheen? >> he probably feels relieved he made it to be a grandfather. hoda, great to see you. enjoy your orange juice. cheers. >> it's missing something.
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>> the four-hour "today" show airs weekdays on nbc. your book is available right now in all book shops. we'll be back. a little more with my interview from charlie sheen which airs tomorrow night. it's quite something. iwçxç?-sñz
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tomorrow night the wild man is back. charlie sheen. one of my all-time favorite and most memorable guests prurns addiction, guns, family, fame,